Draymond Green has been part of a sea change in professional basketball. There is no question that the NBA has evolved over the last decade. The most obvious change in how the game is played is the 3-point shot. Since 2012, the league has seen an increase in 3-point attempts taken by all 30 teams per season.
While a majority of players have adjusted well to this change, a lot of centers looked out of place in this offensive evolution. Since the 3-point shot has been an integral part of every team's offense, teams prefer to use “small ball,” which caused a negative reaction in the way NBA squads perceive big men.
Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green told The Athletic's Anthony Slates that he believes his team had something to do in creating a league in which centers are no longer as valuable compared to previous decades.
“The game kind of got to the point where centers were irrelevant, for the most part. You look back on it, we probably played a part in it.”
Green, who benefited a lot from the changes that took place in the league, made a good point. It was the Warriors who began the 3-point shooting, small-ball trend in the league. Although people can argue that it began with Mike D'Antoni's Phoenix Suns in 2005, nobody trusted that system back then.
It is a different story now.
Yet, while it once seemed as though centers were going to be completely irrelevant, a lot of today's 6-8 to 7-1 guys have been able to develop a consistent 3-point shot, which makes them hot commodities during free agency.
You can call them late bloomers, but the big men of today have been able to adjust and keep hopes alive for up-and-coming tall guys who want to play in the most prominent basketball league in the world.
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